


Too Tall So Small

by EveryDay_ALittleMore



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Both of them really, Bullying, Clingy, Complete, Crying, Embarrassed Steve, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Feels, Gen, Humiliation, Hurt/Comfort, Infantilism, Insecurity, Littles Are Known, Misunderstandings, Non-Sexual Age Play, One Shot, Protective Danny, Shy Steve, Shyness, We Die Like Men, Worried Danny, but they're kinda jerks and don't matter, coming to terms with yourself, don't mess with Steve!, just because they're littles doesn't mean they can't be cruel, so heads up, some OCs, switching POVs, unbetad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 10:54:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30121662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveryDay_ALittleMore/pseuds/EveryDay_ALittleMore
Summary: This is a little one shot about Steve and Danny and navigating through their new relationship as Caregiver and Little.(Read the tags!)
Relationships: Steve McGarrett & Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Too Tall So Small

**Author's Note:**

> Just a few little things: in this universe, Littles average below five foot five...just because. Caregivers range from five foot ten and taller. But there are always outliers, cue Danny and Steve.  
> Caregivers are also stronger than regular baselines.  
> Oh, and the whole little/caregiver thing is commonplace.  
> So...yep, I think that's it.  
> Read, enjoy, or don't--comments and con-crit welcome!

Even though they were on a totally different island and far away from anyone he knew, Steve still felt a little self-conscious in his bright blue t-shirt with the words ‘Daddy’s Little Man’ emblazoned across the chest in neon yellow. Not wanting to pressure Steve into anything, Danny had even let him keep his cargo pants, boots traded out for a pair of orange slippas, but even so, Steve felt nerves clawing in his gut as he gripped tightly onto Danny’s hand. How Danny could stride about like he owned the place was mind-boggling to Steve. He knew that Danny still got jibes about his short stature, jibes his friend took either with annoyance or amusement depending on the day, not to mention that Danny had been mistaken for Steve’s Little on several occasions, and Steve just knew that if the positions were reversed, he’d be a wreck.

Like he was now, Steve thought grimacing.

“Hey, if you want, we can just walk on the beach instead, Steve.” Danny said sensing his discomfort, blue eyes muddied with concern as he looked up at him.

“No. I wanna try.” Steve mumbled.

“Okay, but if it’s too much—“

“—find you.” Steve finished, free hand rubbing nervously at his chin.

Danny bumped his shoulder. “Yeah, that’s right, sweetie.”

The pet name had Steve blush but he couldn’t stop the little smile from breaking out over his face, his headspace dropping.

By the time they reached the Little playground just off the beach with some adult supervisors and caregivers watching their Littles fondly, Steve was filled with more curiosity than dread and tugged Danny closer to the large sandpit which was practically abandoned in favour of the large slide that seemed to be doing pretty good business if the squeals and shouts of exited Littles were anything to go by.

Reaching the edge of the sand pit, Steve looked longingly at the bucket of pails and shovels and other toys waiting to be played with in the sand.

Eyes crinkling softly, Danny nudged Steve. “Hey, those look like fun, you think we should maybe try some of them out?”

“Really?”

Danny’s heart broke a little for the tentative way Steve asked the question, eyes unsure. God, if he could go back in time and give both John and Doris McGarrett a piece of his mind—pulling his thoughts away from vengeance, Danny smiled at Steve reassuringly.

“Yeah, of course. Come on.”

Once in the sand, Steve seemed to unwind a bit and dug about happily with the spade and pail collecting enough sand for a sandcastle, Danny contributing to the construction by way of handing Steve shells and little plastic flags to decorate the building.

“Look at you, my little architect!” Danny praised Steve, hugging the man to his side. “Now that is what I call a sandcastle.”

Steve grinned at him happily, one arm hooking around Danny’s waist.

“Really, Danno?”

“Of course. Here—let me get a picture of it.” Danny was careful to only get the sandcastle, aware of how jittery Steve got around cameras when he was Little. “There. What do you think?”

Steve grinned wider at the picture, a pleased flush coming to his cheeks.

Ruffling Steve’s hair, Danny looked over at an ice cream stand. “For such hard work, you deserve a little treat, huh, buddy? How does a cone sound?”

“Pineapple?”

Danny grinned at Steve fondly. “You really like pineapple huh?”

Steve nodded shyly.

“Then pineapple you shall have. You want to come with me, sweetie, or do you want to keep playing? I’ll be just over there.” Danny pointed over at the brightly coloured stand.

Steve bit his lip and looked over at the playground.

“Oh.” Danny squeezed Steve’s shoulders, proud at how far Steve was coming out of his shell. “You want to play over there for a bit?”

Steve nodded, eyes hopeful.

“Go on then, I’ll be right back—be careful, okay?”

Steve nodded, throwing his arms around Danny and hugging him briefly before he scampered over to the playground.

Smiling, Danny dusted sand from his swimming trunks and headed for the ice cream stand. They’d better damn well have pineapple, he didn’t want anything to spoil this day for Steve.

At the playground, Steve moved happily over to the giant slide that had caught his eye only to be stopped by five Littles who were pointing at him and giggling behind their hands.

Step faltering, Steve tugged on his shirt nervously and tried to circle around the group.

Getting in his way, the Littles crowded around him.

“What are you doing in here?” One of them demanded.

“I—t-t-he slide—“ Steve stuttered.

“The slide’s for Littles—not you.” Another told him rudely.

“I am a L-Little.” Steve protested

“No you’re not! You’re too big!”

“You’d get stuck!”

The group giggled and Steve stumbled back against the wooden fence encircling the playground, shoulder blades hitting wood as more Littles started to join the crowd surrounding him.

“Too tall—too tall—too tall!” They chanted.

Curling in on himself, vision blurring, Steve wasn’t aware of when he’d fallen to the ground, fingers poking him from all sides, laughing ringing in his ears as the words that his mother and father had said to him came rushing back.

Returning to the playground with two pineapple cones—because, yes, Kono, pineapple was perfectly fine, just not on a pie—Danny searched around for Steve. Frowning when all he saw was a bunch of Littles circled around something at the fence, Danny passed the cones to the nearest people, ignoring their surprised looks, and sped off towards the pack of Littles, a sinking feeling growing in his stomach as he forced his way through and found his sobbing Little.

He turned around to glare at the Littles only to find that they had scattered at his presence. Good fuckin’ riddance, he thought in annoyance as he focused his worry on Steve who was starting to get shakily to his feet.

“Hey, sweetie, what happened? Are you hurt?” Danny asked, hands fluttering over Steve as he looked for injuries.

“No.” Steve said roughly, brushing away Danny’s hands. Wiping his face he straightened up, headspace firmly shoved down back where it belonged as he stalked out of the playground area.

Those kids had been right—he wasn’t a Little. He was a Navy SEAl. He didn’t need the hugs or kisses, or—or anything else. He was a fool to think otherwise. His face reddened as he thought of how ridiculous he must look wearing that stupid shirt he’d let Danny persuade him to wear. What the hell was I thinking?

Not wanting to force Steve to talk about what had happened, Danny followed behind the other man as he marched his way back into their hotel room.

Steve stiffly changed his shirt into one of his Navy tee’s, the rest of his clothing packed with military crispness into his duffle bag as Danny sat down on his bed and watched silently.

It was only when he reached for the doorknob that he suddenly stopped moving, breathing coming in short gasps as he felt his headspace bubble up. He didn’t want to leave—Danno was here. Danno was home and safety and—and— _Danno_.

Seeing Steve’s indecision, Danny rose from his spot on the bed and reached his Little in several short strides, a hand rubbing comforting circles on his back.

And that was the last straw for Steve who immediately dropped his bag and turned to cling onto Danny like a limpet, arms wrapping tightly around his neck as legs hooked over Danny’s hips.

Granted with a caregiver’s strength, Danny easily supported Steve and hugged the man close to him as Steve sobbed.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, everything’s going to be all right, sweetie.” Swaying a bit, Danny made his way to the en suite nursery and settled them both down in the extra large rocker meant for two fully grown people. Maneuvering a now sniffling Steve until he was cradling him to his chest, Steve’s legs curled up beside them, Danny stroked his arm and squeezed his neck.

“You want to tell me what happened, baby?” He asked softly, rocking them back and forth, Steve’s fingers twisted tightly in his shirt.

Steve shook his head, eyes downcast.

Petting the soft hair at the base of his head, Danny kept rocking them.

“You know, Stevie, sometimes, when we try to keep something inside, something we don’t want anyone else to know about, it can hurt. It feels like a big icky ball lodged right here.” He tapped Steve’s chest, Steve finally looking at him in wonder.

“How d’you know that?” He asked, voice still teary and rough.

“Because I get that feeling sometimes too.” Danny admitted.

“You do?”

“Yep, and it’s not a nice feeling at all. But sometimes, if we tell someone we really trust, the feeling goes away.”

“I don’t want you to feel like that, Danno.” Steve said, lip wobbling.

“Aw, thank you, sweet pea.” Returning his Little’s fierce hug with one of his own, Danny pressed a kiss to his head. “I don’t want you to feel like that either.”

Not releasing his tight grip on his Danno, Steve thought about this for a moment before finally speaking. “…they—they said I was too tall.” He mumbled, face reddening.

“Too tall?” Danny repeated in confusion. All that came to mind was a children’s book about a bunch of bears. And then realization hit and he didn’t care if all those little twerps were just Littles—they should still have known better, the little bullies—and he swore quite vehemently in his mind as he calmly rubbed a hand up and down Steve’s back.

“Steve.”

Gently prying his Little from his chest, Danny looked him straight in the eye, tone firm.

“You are not too tall—“

“Littles are small.” Steve cut in as though he was repeating something that had been drummed into his head, voice shaky and eyes suspiciously bright. “Not tall.”

“Hey, look at me. Steven.”

Steve reluctantly looked up to meet Danny’s eyes, tears already starting to roll down his tearstained cheeks.

Using his thumb to wipe away the tears, Danny spoke softly, gaze intent. “Those kids were just being mean because you don’t look like they do. But that doesn’t mean they were right to pick on you because of your height, and it doesn’t mean that looking different is a bad thing. People come in all different shapes and sizes, including Littles and Caregivers.”

“Like you, Danno?” Steve asked quietly.

Feeling a faint stab of something in his heart, Danny forced a small smile. “Yeah, like me. You know I love you, right, Stevie? I wouldn’t care if you were twenty feet tall, or a hundred—“ Smile becoming more genuine as Steve giggled at the absurdity of being a hundred feet tall, Danny continued. “I love you because you’re you. You’re one of the strongest people I know, and definitely the bravest, and I wouldn’t change you for anything in the world.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“Never.” Danny repeated firmly.

Burying his head against Danny’s neck, Steve held on like he thought Danny would disappear. “Love you, Danno.”

Danny kissed his Little’s head and squeezed him back tightly.

“Hey, Danno?” Steve asked after a moment of comfortable silence.

“Yeah, Stevie?”

“I feel better.”

Danny’s smile grew and he pressed another kiss to the dark head still nestled in the crook of his neck. “I’m glad. Now, let’s go get you cleaned up huh? Then we can watch something on TV and order room service, sound good?”

Steve nodded eagerly.

Standing up, Danny walked into the bathroom and set Steve down on the counter. Still not quite over the ugly incident of the playground, Steve kept a couple of fingers twisted in Danny’s shirt, not keen on the idea of letting Danny get further than a few steps away from him. Luckily, Danny didn’t have to go far to get a tissue for Steve to blow his nose or for a washcloth to wet and clean his Little’s face.

Finished, he hefted Steve back into his arms and went into the living room.

The rest of their stay seemed to pass quickly, Steve refusing to go outside of the hotel room, and before they knew it, they were back in Oahu and back to work.

But then several weeks passed and Steve hadn’t dropped.

Any conversations Danny would try to have with him were brushed aside, Steve ducking away as soon as possible, and one time, pretending he had gotten a call on his phone. He didn’t have a call, and Danny knew this because his phone rang right in the middle of a fake conversation with nobody and Steve had gone redder than Danny had ever seen him.

All the while, Danny couldn’t help but think about what Steve had said back in that hotel room, and so, making up his mind and determined that Steve wouldn’t get out of another conversation, Danny bribed Kono and Chin—who had both noticed the new tension between the two men—to leave work early so he could catch Steve alone.

Going to Steve’s office, Danny parked himself in the doorway.

“Steve, we need to talk—“ He saw Steve’s eyes scan outside the glass windows for Chin or Kono and sighed. “They’re gone, Steve.”

“I think Max wanted to talk to me about—“

“No, he doesn’t. For the love of—“ Danny blocked Steve’s attempt to push past him a and flung his arms up in aggravation. “Will you just cut it out already?!”

Steve got that stupid ‘I’m going to do what I want to do no matter what you say’ face on and Danny prayed for patience.

“Danny, let me through.”

“Would you just let me talk, already? Thank you!” Danny said sarcastically. He breathed deeply, this wasn’t a conversation they should have angry, but they had to have it sooner than later—for both of their sakes—so it might as well be now. Before Steve decided to toss him to the ground or rappel down the side of the building. “Look, if you want a different caregiver, I understand. That is what I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks now, and—“

“Danny—“ Steve felt his chest tighten, panic starting to hit him like tsunami. Different caregiver? Was—was Danny leaving? “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Well, it’s like you said, I’m not a normal caregiver. I can’t make you feel small and protected like a caregiver should—“

“And you can get a smaller Little, is that it?” Steve asked, his hurt manifesting as anger as his hands balled into fists by his sides.

“What? No! Jesus, Steve—you know that’s not it! I just—“ Danny ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I want you to have everything, Steve. You deserve _everything_. And if that’s not with me, I understand it, okay? I get it.”

“How could you—Danno, how could you think that you don’t give me everything?” Steve demanded, eyes imploring.

Danny frowned and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Well, in case it slipped your mind, I am a detective and it doesn’t take a genius to put the pieces together—you haven’t dropped since a few weeks ago, you don’t want to talk to me, avoid me whenever you can, you didn’t even want to see Grace last weekend. What was I supposed to think, huh? That this was just some weird SEAL way of saying, ‘we’re good’? Because if that’s the case, it definitely lost something in translation.”

Put like that, Steve could see where Danny might have gotten the idea that he had, but as Danny looked at him, waiting for his response, he couldn’t make his mouth work, he could only stare mutely back.

Nodding his head, completely misunderstanding Steve’s silence, Danny felt his heart break a little more. “So. I guess that’s—oomph!”

Arms suddenly full of SEAL, Danny staggered back a little from the sheer force that Steve had used to launch himself at him and quickly shifted his arms to hold onto him properly.

Steve felt utterly ridiculous like this, wrapped around Danny like an octopus, he wasn’t even in his headspace, but he didn’t know how else to show Danny what he couldn’t put into words.

“Not that I don’t love hugs from you, Steve, but I’m kinda getting mixed signals here. I thought you didn’t want—“

Steve shook his head.

Danny frowned, a little hope starting to blossom in his chest. “You…you mean you _do_ want me to be your caregiver?” Steve nodded. “But then why—?”

Voice finally starting to work, Steve mumbled into Danny’s shoulder. “…didn’t want to drop. But you were always there—and I wanted to.” Oh, how he had wanted to. Wanted to just curl up next to his Danno and that insanely soft fuzzy blue blanket with a grey seal embroidered on it that Danno had given him. “But—“ Steve swallowed as his voice thickened, determined not to cry while not in headspace. “I kept hearing everyone who told me I wasn’t a Little—and I just couldn’t. I couldn’t, Danno, I’m sorry.” His treacherous voice broke on the last word and tried to get his breathing under control.

And the award to the biggest idiot on the planet goes to—Danny rubbed a comforting hand up and down Steve’s back, still slightly in shock that Steve would allow himself to be comforted like this when he could tell he wasn’t in headspace. How could I not have seen that? He thought. Steve was struggling and I just—I just threw a pity party for myself, he thought angry with himself. “Steve, you have nothing to apologize for. I should have been there for you—“

“You always are.” Steve interrupted. “Even when I’m an ass. Look, I should’ve talked to you.”

“Damn right you should’ve, but I know why you didn’t.”

“You do?”

“Yes. Steve, you just barely accepted being a Little, heck, it seems like yesterday that you agreed to take me on as a caregiver, the whole hotel thing, it was too much too soon, and I take full responsibility for that. We should have started slow—“

“Danno, stop. None of this is your fault. I agreed to go the hotel, you didn’t make me.”

“But if I had—“

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

“Yeah, I do. It was going to be something along the lines of ‘it’s all my fault’ which it isn’t, Danno.” Steve told him firmly. “Jesus, Danny, do you realize that if you weren’t here, I’d go crazy?”

“I think you mean crazi _er_.” Danny inputted without any heat, a smile clear in his voice as his arms wrapped just a little tighter around Steve.

“I’m gonna be the bigger man here and let that go.” Steve deadpanned.

A surprised bark of laughter escaped Danny’s chest, and Steve smiled into Danny’s shoulder. Never in a million years did he think he would ever be able to joke about his height—their heights—but with Danny…with Danny it didn’t hurt. It was just funny.

“I’m being serious though, if you weren’t here, Danno—“ Steve took a nervous breath. “Iwouldntbeabletohavethis.” He rushed out.

“Excuse me? I want beetle juice please?” Danny’s brow knit in confusion.

“No! I said—I said I wouldn’t be able to have this.” Steve ducked his head into Danny’s shoulder.

“Babe, you can always have this. Always.” Danny told him softly, his heart bursting with affection for the man in his arms. “Even if you wanted a different caregiver—“

At that, Steve pulled his head away from Danny and glared at him. He thought they were over this.

“I don’t want another caregiver, Danny.”

“But if you did—“

“Do you not want to be my caregiver?” Steve interrupted, brow suddenly pinched with worry. What if Danny didn’t?

“Of course I do, you schmuck. I was just saying _if_ —“

“No. I only want you, Danno.” Steve told him firmly.

They looked at each other for a moment, and then Danny slowly smiled, the soft fond smile that was reserved for Steve and Gracie. “And I only want you, Stevie. But…”

Steve’s smile faded. “But what?” He asked anxiously.

“We have got to work on our communication skills.”

“Together?”

Danny pressed a kiss to Steve’s head, amused when the other man blushed and buried his head back into his shoulder. “Yeah, together.”


End file.
